“Virtually every major technology has been exploited not only for peaceful purposes but also for hostile ones. Must this also happen with biotechnology, which is rapidly becoming the dominant technology of our age"” —Matthew Meselson, New York Review of Books, December 20, 2001.

Biological warfare (also called germ or bacteriological warfare) is the use of living disease-causing agents such as viruses, germs, or fungi—or toxins derived from them—as a weapon of war against an enemy’s soldiers, civilians, animals, or crops. Examples of potential biological agents include the smallpox virus and the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes plague. Such weapons could be used for either killing or incapacitating people. The term also refers to defensive measures against such attacks.

Biological weapons have been called the “poor nation’s atomic bomb” because they could be developed by nations too poor...